Nationally and internationally, young people have expressed high levels of concern about climate change, which has been consistently associated with psychological distress. Young Australians have reported that climate distress has impacted their functioning, their hope for the future and their mental health. Climate distress is not a clinical diagnosis, and likely includes healthy and adaptive responses that can lead to productive action against climate change, as well as clinically-relevant distress that requires greater support.

Young people have recognised that addressing climate distress needs to go beyond a focus on their individual mental health and include a focus on climate policy. While climate distress is often related to distress about the direct impacts of climate change, it can also include distress relating to a lack of climate action or the impact of media coverage about climate events impacting others. Opportunities have been identified in both clinical and non-clinical settings.

To inform this report, Orygen commissioned a YouGov survey of young Australians (16–25 years old) to understand how climate distress is impacting the mental health and wellbeing of young people. A total of 1,000 young people participated between April and May 2023.